Dogen, Yuan Mei

Dōgen Zenji (道元禅師; also Dōgen Kigen 道元希玄, or Eihei Dōgen 永平道元, or Koso Joyo Daishi) (19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher born in Kyōto, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China and training under the Chinese Caodong lineage there. Dōgen is known for his extensive writing including the Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma or Shōbōgenzō, a collection of ninety-five fascicles concerning Buddhist practice and enlightenment. His poems are translated by many people.

He is a favorite of mine and the following are two of my favorite poems.:



Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is refelected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.



Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma
See no Dharma in everyday actions.
They not yet discovered that
There are no everyday actions outside Dharma.



The Dharma for me is the teachings of the Buddha Gautma. I am of no particular school of Buddhism. I take a little here and a little there. I do have a fondness for Zen. I will not try and define Zen for no one can. It would be the same as trying to define what the Tao is.

Many people believe that the truth resides in all of us and that the Dharma is the same for all of us but each truth is uniquely our own. It does not lie outside ourselves but within. We just need to trust what is there and not to look for answers in other people, books unless the books speaks to what is within. It is not a Western way of looking at things. I know when I became acquainted with Buddhism, it felt like I found a glove that fit just right and the older I get the more I don't need Buddhism. I just need the inner self that is there when I meditate.

All of us are on a pathway to God or whatever one defines as God. It does not have to be a god at all as it is not for Buddhists. For the Taoists, it is primarily nature. I know a park where people go to watch the sun come up as it is a very holy place for them. They are Taoists. They recognize everyplace is holy but they can really see it there.

Just Done By Yuan Mei

A month alone behind closed doors
forgotten books, remembered, clear again.
Poems come, like water to the pool
Welling,
up and out,
from perfect silence

Climbing the Mountain by Yuan Mei

I burned incense, swept the earth, and waited
for a poem to come...

Then I laughed, and climbed the mountain,
leaning on my staff.

How I'd love to be a master
of the blue sky's art:

see how many sprigs of snow-white cloud
he's brushed in so far today.

Yuan Mei (袁枚 pinyin: Yuán Méi, 1716 – 1797) was a well-known poet, scholar and artist of the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Mei was born in Qiantang (錢塘, in modern Hangzhou), Zhejiang province, to a cultured family who had never before attained high office. He achieved the degree of jinshi in 1739 at the young age of 23, was immediately appointed to the Hanlin Academy (翰林院) in order to learn the Manchu language. However, he proved unable to do so and failed the language exam. Therefore, he received appointment instead as a provincial magistrate. From 1742 to 1748, Yuan Mei served in four different provinces in Jiangsu. However, in 1748, shortly after being assigned to administer part of Nanjing, he resigned his post and returned to his hometown to pursue his literary interest.

He is pictured with women as he believed in women being poets and took them as students. I included him so I could have a Taoist poet and because I wanted to include such an open- minded man.